Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Francois Nars

Was I a businessman to start with? I'm not sure. I mean, that comes slowly, when you start having the products out. But at the same time, I was very determined. I knew that I had to make it work. I had no choice.

I'm very nostalgic - and I don't care.

A fresh face with a red lip is timeless. It's supermodern and relaxed but very chic.

My mother and my two grandmothers, I was lucky to have three women around me growing up that were very special, very elegant women, very beautiful women. They were my first step into the beauty world, let's say, and then the fashion world, of course.

A woman who hides behind a mask of makeup is still going to have to take it off at some point... and deal with reality.

We are not afraid to be a bit different, to make shades that are bold.

My goal was always to make the girl look real and look beautiful. It didn't matter how much makeup. Sometimes it was none at all.

Looking at flowers, simple things in life. I don't need to look at gold and a castle; sometimes its very simple things that are very beautiful. I am keeping my eyes fresh to find beauty in many places, and in gold, too, sometimes!

My mother hated foundation; she hated having a mask on her face - and she pushed me to build my own vision and concept of beauty for women.

It really has stayed practically the same. It wasn't like I used to do wild punk make-up: no, I always had the same vision.

Women have to find their own personality, their own style, and what suits them the best.

Having worked with so many of the geniuses, I'd learned so much. It's the best sort of photography school, to work with people like Penn or Avedon or Meisel.

I think less is more when it comes to make-up; this really helps achieve a lighter complexion. Heavy make-up creates a canvas and can dull the skin.

I had no connections, and the fashion world was a closed elite. So my mother made appointments for herself with three top Parisian makeup artists and spoke highly about me... she was my first publicist!

I'm not an easily depressed person.

I've always loved the way movie stars in the Forties looked when they were off set. Shot poolside or at their home, they always wore a matte red lipstick with practically no foundation - it was how they wore makeup in real life.

I fell in love with New York. I moved here 25 years ago in 1984 after I lived in Paris for six years. In the 1980s, it was the place to be. Here I was able to create NARS, which I would not have been able to create if I stayed in France.

In America, when I first came here, they were used to wearing more make-up - thicker foundation, more Max Factor, that sort of thing. But you have to know who you are and what you look like: if you know yourself a little bit, you don't need to follow trends.

I love strong looks, so to me, no makeup is strong. As long as it makes a statement, that's what I like. The girls look very real, and I'm probably the only makeup artist who will say that I love a woman without makeup.

Women are very unpredictable.

I think it's important that you know every detail when you open a store, that you pay attention to everything.

Makeup is very important for a show. It's really an accessory on the runway. You have to be sure that it fits the clothes.

My mother never wore much make-up, and she was a kind of natural beauty; she knew just how to enhance what she had.

I'll keep creating modern, deep, rich and adventurous colors and products that inspire creative expression every day.

You can look glamorous even if you're a housewife, any job you have.

True icons are larger than life, unforgettable with an elegance that's mesmerizingly timeless.

I always had a vision about beauty in general, so probably that's what really drove me into that direction of creating a makeup brand.

I was a very lucky child because at the age of 16, 17 years old, my parents would buy me clothes from Yves Saint Laurent, which was an incredible luxury at the time, but I was attracted to that whole world. I had a pretty nice little wardrobe by the age of 17.

I think everyone deserves to look better and to look good.

I remember this time I worked with Linda Evangelista on a shoot for Richard Avedon. I just put grease on her face, and it was beautiful.

I didn't want to create a makeup line for one ethnic group; it had to be multi-ethnic. To me, beauty is beauty. It doesn't matter to me what colour the skin is.

I love the architecture magazines and all of the French magazines for decoration or whatever. I end up enjoying them more sometimes than the fashion magazines.

You are born with this love; fashion and beauty are a part of who I am.

Sometimes people are very not sure of themselves, so you really have to give them that confidence. Even models - they need to warm up sometimes on photo shoots.

I loved working with Avedon.

I love the dramatic idea of having nothing on.

I'm always scared of trends. The runways are always so trend-oriented, but I always feel for the women. The real women that buy cosmetics want to see the trends, but they don't necessarily go for them. And I always encourage women to find what looks best on them.

I think if you take good care of your skin, you can achieve better make-up.

It's not that I'm easily shocked. It takes a lot to shock me. And wildness I like. But vulgarity shocks me.

Even with - the best make-up in the world won't look good if you don't cleanse and exfoliate and have a good basic regime. This is why one of my goals has always been to create a skincare line.

It's more fun to have a name rather than a number. I think this gives our products a personality. I get the names from literature, movies, opera, traveling, nature, poetry, sometimes even the street. I keep a small book that I write in. I wake up in the middle of the night and jot down a name for a lipstick or an eyeshadow.

I think Edie Sedgwick comes back, too. Every five or six years, there is always something about Edie, because she was so modern and stylish and elegant and hippie-ish, all at the same time. So I think that people will always love her.

We love those under-eye circles. It's real life.

Makeup is about balance. When the eye makes a statement, the lips should be quiet.

I think there was a freedom in the 1920s and 1930s: a certain liberty and evolution of women.

You create the color first, and then the name that fits. It depends - there are no rules. You watch a fabulous old movie, and you suddenly get inspired by it to create a lipstick shade, or you walk through a gorgeous garden and find the most beautiful flower shade for an eye shadow, and then you name it.

My interpretation of the word 'ugly'... I like ugly beauty. That can happen. In France, we have phrase 'jolie laide.' We like certain women who are not pretty or cute - it's the opposite in France of pretty. It's more strange and interesting.

I would find myself in these photo shoots with models and makeup, and I got swept up in it all.

I never stop thinking about names of products. It's a process that happens 24 hours a day.

Find your own way, have an open spirit, and believe in your own beauty.

When I was a kid, I loved photography, and I loved makeup.

As a make-up artist, you always want to be in a good light, whether you're walking down the street or in a restaurant. It is a very key element to me; you can't apply good make-up in a bad light.

I really wanted to have a different approach of beauty because when I came to America, they were still heavily, heavily plastic. The ads were so heavily retouched.

I like shocking, but I don't like to shock as an automatic process. Sometimes it happens, but it's not my main drive.

I chose makeup over photography because there was something very sensual about makeup that I loved. But photography was always in the back of my mind. That was always something that I was very connected with: looking at magazines, enjoying photography, and then taking pictures myself when I was a kid.

It's very refreshing to go away and take a break, to clear your head, and just get into something else.

I never thought make-up was like brain surgery.

When you photograph someone, you have to make them feel good, and you know that they want to look good. It's the same relationship that you have when you apply makeup on somebody. We're almost like shrinks.

Wearing colourful eyeliner in a graphic shape is the epitome of make-up as an accessory.

There was a time when you would dream about, say, movie stars. Now, you virtually follow them into their bathroom when they're going to the loo.